The present invention relates to a detachable boom that can be quickly and securely attached to a fork truck without welding and without other non-mechanical means.
Fork trucks are useful for lifting heavy objects and sometimes booms are attached to the fork trucks for millwright work, such as for moving heavy machinery. However, for very heavy lifting, safety is a serious concern. There are two common ways in the industry of dealing with this issue. First, many millwrights construct their own device, including welding the boom to the fork truck so that there is no doubt about sureness of the attachment. Then, when done using the apparatus, they cut off the boom to avoid the liability of someone else using their custom-built device. Second, some companies will ship the fork truck to a location where the boom can be welded to the fork truck, and then ship the combined truck-and-boom to the location of use. When done, the process is repeated in order to remove the boom from the fork truck so that the fork truck can be used for other operations. Both of these methods have disadvantages and costs.
There are some known patents that propose booms attachable to fork trucks. However, they apparently do not provide a desired level of durability, strength, ease-of-assembly, ease-of-disassembly, lift capacity, and/or robustness based on their lack of market success and/or lack of market presence.